Europe taking timid steps toward tax harmonization

An initiative to breath life into the harmonization of corporate taxation rules across the European Union - which got a nudge from the European finance ministers' meeting in September - is now rumbling its way through the Brussels-based EU institutions.

But any proposed spirit of togetherness would entail only the tax base, and not tax rate uniformity itself. And some experts predict that it could remain in the negotiating stage anywhere from five to 10 years.